To really master billiards it could take you years or even a lifetime. Although it’s a game that is quite simple to understand, if you want to get to the level where you win games on a consistent basis you need to put the effort in to learn the technique that works best for you.
Billiards is a great game that you can play with family and friends either at home or at a billiard hall, even some pubs and clubs.
I grew up in the UK in a home with two brothers and a father that loved to play billiards and snooker, and then a husband and son that loved the game too. Over the years we had a number of billiard tables of varying sizes, from tabletop billiards to tables with a slate bed, and sometimes a table that needed re covering, but we usually had one at our disposal. When my son was around 12 years old he had what we called a half size table in his bedroom, it was a really large room.
With having this type of access we would often play either billiards or snooker. We had an assortment of cues including sawed off ones for the kids, billiard balls, snooker balls, chalk, a cue rests.
As a fun and challenging game you may want to check it out. To do this you don’t have to have your own table you can check out where your nearest billiard hall is and go try it out. Even if you love the game having your own table isn’t always practical due to lack of space and cost. However, if you do get hooked on the game you may want to purchase your own billiard cue. Billiard tables usually range in size between 3.5 x7 and 5X10 so if you have the room it maybe something you might consider, you do need to allow room to manoeuvre around the table too and those cues are pretty long.
In the standard game you use 16 balls. One side or team will play balls 1-7 these are solid colors, the other team will play balls 9-15 these are the stripped balls. Ball number 8 is a black ball and the intention is that this ball is left on the table until the end. Once one team has pocketed all their balls they will go after the black ball and try to pocket that one.
To start the game initially when the table is set up for the break whoever goes first if they pocket a ball at the break that is what they will play so if they pocket a solid color they play the solid colors, if stripped they play the stripped balls and if they happen to pocket one of each they get to choose.
There is also a popular version of 9 ball billiards which is very popular and often used in tournaments the player will call his shot before he plays it.
Check out Amazons excellent selection of Billiard cues
